On the face of it, Prime Minister John Key's consistent claim that he had never heard of Kim Dotcom until the eve of the extraordinary armed raid on the Dotcom mansion on January 20 2012 seems unlikely and absurd.

Documents declassified and released through the Official Information Act show the Security Intelligence Service tried to block Kim Dotcom's residency application but dropped their objection 90 minutes after being told there was "political pressure" to let the tycoon into New Zealand.

And further:

The Herald has made multiple Official Information Act requests since Dotcom was arrested in January 2012 on FBI charges of criminal copyright violation, in an attempt to discover why he was given residency. The requests have never produced the SIS information - until a request in May accompanied by a privacy waiver from Dotcom.

The "political pressure" claim was made in October 2010 after the SIS blocked Dotcom's residency application when it learned of the FBI's criminal investigation into his Megaupload empire.

On October 22 that year, one SIS agent wrote to another saying: "INZ [Immigration NZ] has phoned me to advise that the INZ CEO [Nigel Bickle] is questioning why this case is on hold. Apparently there is some 'political pressure' to process this case."

The agent noted the need for the "CEO" to be briefed on the Dotcom case. The SIS director at the time was Dr Warren Tucker, who reports directly to Prime Minister John Key.

Laila Harre, the leader of the Dotcom-banrkolled Internet Party, responded to Herald in intriguing fashion.

"It should never have got that far," said Internet Party leader Laila Harre. "If the minister had been advised of the FBI investigation it would be extraordinary if the minister would not have blocked the ongoing residency process."

Well, quite. Why would Dotcom have been granted residency in light of a criminal investigation by the FBI, even if the crime in question was an adventurous take on secondary copyright infringement?

Harre has responded as she did because the new revelations lend some credence to one of Dotcom's key claims about his case: that he was granted residency by the New Zealand government, in breach of our procedures, so that he could be offered up on a plate to the Americans when they were ready to grab him.

The Internet Party says revelations of political pressure being brought to bear on immigration authorities dealing with Kim Dotcom’s residency application have moved beyond the personal to the constitutional.

The release to the New Zealand Herald of declassified emails between Security Intelligence Service agents raises the spectre of decisions being made that are inconsistent with New Zealand law, and at the behest of a foreign power, says Internet Party leader Laila Harré.

“These emails add to the already existing speculation that our immigration laws and procedures came second to the demands of another country’s government in this case.”

She believes that if the Immigration Service had followed normal procedure, the residency application by Kim Dotcom would not have landed on the Minister’s desk. It would have been frozen because of the FBI investigation into Mr Dotcom.

Dotcom's lawyers are now demanding to know -- with considerable justification -- why the newly-discovered emails were not released to them.

While the "political pressure" phrase has been picked up on with gusto (or disgust) by a number of people this part of the herald article seems to be being ignored:

An earlier statement from Immigration NZ - provided by the SIS - said "it appears the government interest in the success of the [business migration] policy may have been misconstrued as political pressure".

The statement appeared to be contradictory, saying so much time had passed "it is impossible to know whether this is an accurate reflection of comments that were made" while adding "INZ can state unequivocally that there was no political pressure".

There's more twists in this story than a packet of spiralini. And the story is nowhere near al dente yet.

“it appears the government interest in the success of the [business migration] policy may have been misconstrued as political pressure”

That interpretation seems plausible, but I'd still suggest that is political pressure in that the Minister, ostensibly wanting to make the business migration scheme a success, was basically applying pressure.

Honestly at this stage the details of Dotcom's residency, the GCSB and SIS involvement at various stages, the police operation... All make it very hard to believe that the Prime Minister wasn't briefed at least once or twice.

If he really is telling the truth about not having heard of Dotcom prior to the raid then it's a pretty serious indictment into the way he runs his government I'd think because at least a few of those occasions certainly should have been brought to his attention.

this was always a story that had more legs than a creepy crawly thing... if the Prime Minister has, as many believe, been less than honest about his knowledge of Dotcom I bet he and his strategists are rueing the day they decided to hunker down and hope it would all blow over

I believe Mr Gower would trumpet this as a potential game changer... of which I am sure there is plenty more to come

Sad to say but I suspect the wider electorate will still not care a whim. Do they have a job, is the economy 'booming' (perceptually, at least), is NZ 'on the right track'? they will see Kim Dotcom as a buffoon and Collins/McCully/Williamson's misdemeanours notwithstanding, Key's prevarication, Ryall/Bridges/Brownlee's incompetence - none of these have any impact so long as things seem to be heading right. As Clinton said, "It's the economy, stupid."

Unless they can catch Key out with a direct lie. And he's too smart for that.

You’d have to wonder why the minister responsible for the SIS wasn’t briefed on Dotcom at the time.

Whilst I actually do consider it conceivable that he wasn’t briefed, it’s only because I think Key treats oversight of the intelligence services as akin to having DPS officers shadowing him: I’m so cool because I get to hang out with these guys, just like my buddy Barack. It’s not serious, it’s not important, and it’s sure as hell not something that should take time away from golfing with foreign heads of state and local party donors.

The Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) withdrew its objections to Kim Dotcom's residency as the Government negotiated a deal with a major Hollywood studio over The Hobbit.

Mega boss Dotcom, founder of the Internet-Mana party, believes US authorities wanted to keep him in New Zealand so it would be easier to extradite him on internet piracy and copyright infringement charges.

He has long claimed the New Zealand Government was acting at the behest of the American film industry but has never offered proof.

Warner Brothers had threatened to pull the plug on filming the The Hobbit movies in New Zealand, which would have cost the domestic film industry thousands of jobs.

The National Government flew 10 top Hollywood executives to Wellington and thrashed out a deal at Premier House, the official residence of Prime Minister John Key.

Sources today pointed Fairfax Media to the timing of the Hobbit negotiations and the spy agency U-turn.

I think there is piles in this that is new in response to the "more of the same" meme which seems to be gaining traction in the Socialverse. It seems to me that the Govt, John Key and Jonathan Coleman are caught in something of a bind.

The current defence/explanation for the "political pressure" asserts that Jonathan Coleman (and the SIS and INZ were prepared to go along with this) was willing to sell residency to a person for $10 million being deposited in a NZ bank account.

The alternate version is that Coleman did some dirty work for the Cabinet Club which he cleverly managed to keep at arms length through a special delegation. It looks externally as if everybody who was involved in this apparent conspiracy knew full well that what they were up to was as dodgy as.

So either they corruptly sought to allow a criminal type into NZ knowing him to be a bad egg - in return for a bank making some fairly small bikkies (a nd the SIS went along with this) - or there was a conspiracy to lure him to NZ so they could offer him up to the Americans - as Kim Dotcom has long claimed.

The evidence is increasingly pointing to the latter, but both explanations play rather bad for the PM.

I have long wondered if this is the real reason that Simon Power resigned. He was Justice Minister through all this and also well informed (unlike the PM) of what was afoot.

Mega boss Dotcom, founder of the Internet-Mana party, believes US authorities wanted to keep him in New Zealand so it would be easier to extradite him on internet piracy and copyright infringement charges.

He has claimed to have evidence to back up his claims but says he is holding it back until the appropriate time, which he had said was court.

Court has now been delayed until next year.

Will Dotcom keep waiting or release his evidence to blow Key out of the election? That's presuming he has the claimed evidence.

Another factor: Mr Dotcom has long maintained that Prime Minister John Key knew about the January 2011 raid on his rented mansion long before it occurred. I suspect he's going to drop some new evidence on that one shortly before the election.

@KimDotcom two weeks ago

September 15th A big day for New Zealand THE MOMENT OF TRUTH Event details coming soon

He was already here when the deals were apparently done. The talk of “residency” means permanent residency, not just being a resident.

Actually no. This June 2011 story by David Fisher refers to his intention to settle in New Zealand. He’d been back and forth on visits from Hong Kong, once for two months, but he may well not have settled had his residency not been granted.

It’s interesting that while the character grounds for residency were overridden by a “special direction” in 2010, his bid to buy the Coatesville mansion was rejected on character grounds by the Overseas Investment Commission in 2011.

FWIW, I do think his previous convictions were relatively minor. The computer hacking and computer fraud convictions were earned as a minor (the judge said “youthful foolishness”) and the procedural stock trading offences in Hong Kong attracted a fine of $US1250. The worst of them was the 2001 pump-and-dump share purchase in Letsbuyit.com, which caused genuine losses for other investors, but he copped a plea and avoided any jail time there (he could conceivably have been acquitted – German law was messy in that area). It’s indicative of his longtime tendency to ride just the wrong side of the line.

But none of those were the stuff of a joint FBI and New Zealand police operation, which came in while his residency application was being considered. That was surely pretty major.

The emails clearly say that "INZ have enough on his criminal history to not give him PR". And then it turns out that he is a person of interest in an FBI investigation, which should ring further alarm bells. So why on earth is he was he given residency? It certainly wasn't in NZ's interest to do so - as we have seen, he's cost the justice system a lot of money, and all the trouble could have been avoided if they had simply used the available grounds to deny him residency.

Sources today pointed Fairfax Media to the timing of the Hobbit negotiations and the spy agency U-turn.

Russell: Um… would that be KDC or Internet Mana shopping a story paragraph three of Andrea’s own story says Dotcom’s been pushing for a while? Look, we’re all grown ups here perfectly well aware the Press Gallery is being pitched and spun from all sides all the time, but please let’s not be cute…

But none of those were the stuff of a joint FBI and New Zealand police operation, which came in while his residency application was being considered. That was surely pretty major.

So is alleging that the Government ran some convoluted residency honey trap at the behest of a foreign corporation, or something. I’ve given up chanting “correlation does not imply causation” at the media, but someone needs to even if you do believe there’s no corruption or depravity the Government won’t stoop to…

Russell: Um… would that be KDC or Internet Mana shopping a story paragraph three of Andrea’s own story says Dotcom’s been pushing for a while? Look, we’re all grown ups here perfectly well aware the Press Gallery is being pitched and spun from all sides all the time, but please let’s not be cute…

It adds some dates to the timeline. Dates during which the government was negotiating with interests who have participated as parties to the court action since.

So is alleging that the Government ran some convoluted residency honey trap at the behest of a foreign corporation, or something. I’ve given up chanting “correlation does not imply causation” at the media, but someone needs to even if you do believe there’s no corruption or depravity the Government won’t stoop to…

As I noted, the new emails do not prove the conspiracy theory. But it’s entirely reasonable to ask why the SIS would have done a 90-minute turnaround on its strong advice to Immigration NZ, given that it felt that even the earlier offences had been grounds for refusal of residency to someone it now knew to also be the subject of a current FBI and police investigation. Also, it’s reasonable to ask what the nature of the “political pressure” was.

Edit: It's also reasonable to ask how the head of the SIS, Warren Tucker, could have forgotten to mention this unusual situation involving a foreign government agency to the responsible minister, Mr Key. Particularly given that a couple of Key's own ministers were connected to Dotcom and might surely have wanted to know.

As I said in the post, today’s revelations lend some credence to Dotcom’s claim in this respect.

Perhaps immigration was looking firmly at .com’s bank account when issuing visas, just like they have when processing other businessmen with dubious histories.

Or the minister was. That's really the best-case scenario for the government at the moment: they overruled the SIS to get residency for a guy with a criminal record and a current FBI investigation because he was just really rich.